Globe Corner Blogs

Fall is my hands-down favorite time of year, especially here in New England where the trees spontaneously combust with fiery reds and oranges and homemade pumpkin pie is readily available.  The August air goes from wet blanket ( with that unmistakable garbagey odor — one of the many pleasure of big city living) to September cool and crisp.  And though I’m a Low Country girl, born ‘n bred, the humidity does not agree with either my temperament or my hair.  Like the boiled peanuts my dad loves so much, I will never get used to it.  So I am always happy to say good-bye to the season of unflattering tank-tops and awkward tan lines and welcome with open, sun burnt arms the season of bookish cardigans and stylish scarves.

Summertime, though, is also the time of the peach, the most delicious fruit known in this world or the next, capable of producing truly magical culinary feats.  And it is always a minor tragedy, at the end of August, to buy what you know will be your last basket of peaches of the season.  The subject of peaches is one my fellow South Carolinians and I have been raised to take very seriously.  Every good South Carolina native will have her favorite place to buy peaches, whether it is the small-town farmer’s market or the even smaller bed of a pick-up truck on the side of the road.  There are festivals devoted to the peach all over the state and even a gigantic water tower shaped like a peach in upstate Gaffney known as the Peachoid.  I suspect Roald Dahl may have found inspiration for his children’s classic James and the Giant Peach here, although his official biography makes no mention of this.

In my humble opinion, the place to pick up the sweetest, juiciest, tastiest by a country-mile peaches (good for baking and just plain eating) is McLeod Farms in McBee, aka “Mac’s Pride.”  A visit home in the summer is not complete without at least one, usually upwards of four, visits to this roadside farm that has become famous for its produce, but beloved for its peaches.  And it is a welcome sight on Highway 151, an oasis in the middle of the state, literally the only thing for miles, when you’ve been on the road for hours and my God it’s hot and wouldn’t a nice dish of fresh-out-of-the-oven peach cobbler with homemade ice cream and a basket of peaches for the road be good right about now?

My family’s been stopping there for as long as I remember, and like Pavlov’s dog, I have been conditioned to start drooling when we pass the farm’s miles and miles of fluffy green peach trees.  The acres of farmland surround a small wooden house with tractors and cars parked all around it, pilgrims in search of holy fruit and heavenly baked goods (Peach cobbler, peach “enchiladas,” peach pie, peach muffins, peach smoothies, peach ice cream, candied peaches, stewed peaches…).  And if that’s not enough, you can walk away with a peach-themed cookbook.

A word of warning. If you’re thinking, “Well, that sounds nice, but I thought Georgia was the Peach State,” you are technically correct, but only in a grudging, legal kind of way.  And I wouldn’t say that to anyone while you’re in South Carolina, unless you’re looking for a very lengthy, proprietary history lesson about the peach rivalry between the two states.  Yes, Georgia has put a dainty pink peach on its license plates, its official motto is “the Peach State,” and Scarlett O’Hara’s house in Atlanta was famously on Peachtree Street, but my home state, “the Palmetto State,” actually produces and ships more peaches than Georgia –  they come in as the third largest producer to our number two. (California is #1, but they don’t count.)  The SC Department of Agriculture‘s website likes to brag that at one time, a single county could out-produce the whole state of Georgia, although they don’t offer up the exact time when this was true.  Semantics aside, visitors to my favorite peach producers in McBee will surely come away thinking that South Carolina is “the Tastier Peach State,” as the state has deemed itself.

Read more: Festivals, Food & Wine, News, South Carolina, South US, Travel


Nicole -- Nicole hails from metropolian Conway, South Carolina. While she's not busy doing Southern things like eating biscuits and heavily buttered grits (often together), she likes to travel to other countries and eat their food. Her favorite exotic treats include: Icelandic Skyr, South Indian dosa, British Jaffa Cakes, and Austrian strudel.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS